


The Sharing of Soles

by Spones-in-my-bones (KoruLunan)



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Bad Puns, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, Mild Blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 02:01:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8602867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoruLunan/pseuds/Spones-in-my-bones
Summary: "Are you awake now?""I am." McCoy replied, slowly opening his eyes as they adjusted to the dim lighting, and, right above his head, Spock's face. He stayed still for a moment, part surprised and part flustered by the close proximity of their faces. He quickly snapped himself from it, however, when he noticed exactly how long he and Spock had been sharing eye contact. "Kinda hard to sleep when your alarm clock is a persistent Vulcan." He chuckled nervously. Cautiously feeling the ground around him, McCoy slowly hoisted himself up onto his elbows, feeling that sharp twinge again and flinching."Do not move too much, Doctor. It appears you were injured in the fall."(Another Spones fanfic I wrote like 3 years ago but never posted. Enjoy!)





	

"...Doctor. Doctor McCoy."

_A voice. It's familiar._

"Doctor McCoy it is imperative that you awaken."

_That's... Spock?_

"Leonard. You must regain consciousness."

_Leonard? Why is he-wait. Consciousness? Am I-_

A slight groan escaped McCoy's throat as a sharp pain surfaced alongside his consciousness. His eyes involuntarily tightened as he forced the pain to dull for the time being.

"Are you awake now?"

"I am." McCoy replied, slowly opening his eyes as they adjusted to the dim lighting, and, right above his head, Spock's face. He stayed still for a moment, part surprised and part flustered by the close proximity of their faces. He quickly snapped himself from it, however, when he noticed exactly how long he and Spock had been sharing eye contact. "Kinda hard to sleep when your alarm clock is a persistent Vulcan." He chuckled nervously. Cautiously feeling the ground around him, McCoy slowly hoisted himself up onto his elbows, feeling that sharp twinge again and flinching.

"Do not move too much, Doctor. It appears you were injured in the fall."

"Yeah, I can feel that." He stated, carefully maneuvering himself so he was sitting up against the rock wall, beside Spock. He looked to the Vulcan, who had been sitting cross legged, his legs used as a cushion for McCoy's head. He paused. "Mind telling me exactly what fall that was again?"

Spock nodded, motioning upwards at the only source of light in the cavern they appeared to be trapped in.

McCoy whistled, the sound echoing seemingly endlessly. "That's a pretty nasty height. That's... what? Fifty feet? I'm surprised I wasn't injured more."

_Unless..._

Looking over to Spock, he noticed exactly how injured the Vulcan was. There were rips and tears in his uniform, and blood appeared to have stained his left sleeve. "Why you Vulcan idiot!" McCoy exclaimed, a mixture of worry and anger prominent on his face.

Spock simply raised an eyebrow. "I believe the correct phrase, Doctor, is 'Thank you'."

McCoy could feel his blood boiling. "You...You!" McCoy exclaimed, moving himself so he could get a better look at Spock's arm. Spock easily complied with the doctor's fussing. "Why would you do something like that? You could have gotten yourself killed!"

After finding that the radius bone in his lower arm had been broken, McCoy quickly ripped his sleeve and replaced the makeshift bandage that Spock had placed on it, stopping the bleeding by making it tighter. He then began to construct a small sling for Spock's arm, seeing that there were no materials with which to make a splint in the immediate area.

"I did not die, however."

McCoy let out a heavy sigh at the words. "You know, Spock. I'm getting really sick and tired of this kamikaze obsession you and Jim have."

"By kamikaze, are you referring to the pilots in Earth's history who, in the second world war-"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!"

"I assure you, Doctor, that I am not a 'kamikaze', as you put it."

McCoy scoffed. "You sure seem to act like one to me."

"And further, I did not die-"

"But you could have!" McCoy snapped, glaring at Spock as his voice echoed loudly in the otherwise bleak silence of the cavern.

For a moment, Spock's eyes widened slightly, in partial shock at the doctor's action and words. He paused a moment before beginning to speak. "Doctor, I-"

"I'm sorry, Spock." Pinching the bridge of his nose, McCoy let out a shaky breath  

"Just... forget it." McCoy finished the sling in silence, both on his and Spock's part. He slung it around Spock's neck, fitting it to his arm and making sure it was at least somewhat comfortable.

When he was done, he flopped back softly against the rock wall and looked up to the seemingly small hole in the ceiling. "How long was I out for?" McCoy asked, now realizing how delayed his question was.

“Four hours."

"Four hours! I must have hit my head harder than I thought. It doesn't appear that I have a concussion, though."

Spock was silent.

"What did you do for four whole hours? Surely you weren't trying to wake me the whole time?"

"At first I attempted to wake you, but with no success. I decided to then focus on finding an escape route."

"And seeing how we're still here, I'm guessing that was with no success either." McCoy looked around, seeing none of their supplies near them. "And our communicators?"

Spock held up a communicator that he had attached to the orange wrap on his waist. "It appears that there is some material in the walls of this cavern that interferes with the communicator's signal. With the hole in the cavern ceiling, I was only able to get through to the ship for .006 seconds."

"That's still a signal! Perhaps with that they can find us!" McCoy exclaimed hopefully.

"The signal was not connected to the ship long enough to give precise coordinates. My calculations state that the signal connected long enough to give approximately an 800 square mile radius within which the signal could have originated."

“Alright, is there anything else? What about an exit in this cavern?"

"I have checked the walls surrounding us, and there was no foreseeable exit."

Another sharp pain jolted from McCoy's side. _If I only had my medkit..._ He grumbled in thought as he once again clenched his fist and forced the pain to dull.

"What is the state of your injuries?" Spock inquired.

"What? Oh. I'm alright. Just a cut on my leg, and my side is bruised. Nothing I can't handle and easily fix once... we get back to the ship."

 **_If_ ** _we get back to the ship._ Were the unspoken words that both he and Spock knew lingered in the following silence.

Spock placed his unbroken hand on one knee and pushed himself to stand up.

"What are you doing?" McCoy asked, watching Spock carefully to be sure the sling wouldn't come off.

"Now that you are awake, doctor, I can further utilize my time to think of a possible way for us to escape this cavern." He moved forward into the darkness, using what vision he had to search the floor. "In the time that you have been awake, the sun's light has moved enough so that I am able to better see farther into the other side of the cave."

"To see if there is anything you might have missed before." McCoy finished with a slight grin. If Spock wasn't going to give up, neither was he. That Vulcan stubbornness of his can come in handy, at times.

McCoy stood up, trying to hide the grimace from the pain he felt in both his leg and his side.

At the sound of the movement, Spock looked over to McCoy. "What are you doing, Doctor?"

McCoy hid the grimace, but still held onto his side with one hand. "What's it look like? I'm helping find a way out of here."

"You are in no condition-"

"Like you're one to talk. You're hurt worse than I am, and you're moving around."

"Indeed, however I am Vulcan-"

" _Half_ Vulcan."

"-which indicates that I am much sturdier than yourself."

"Don't go giving _me_ a lesson on the differences in our anatomy, Spock. I know all too well how different-and _similar_ -we are. You may be half Vulcan, but I'm _all_ doctor, and I say that you're hurt worse than you are letting on, and yet you are still trying to figure out a way out of this mess. And I'll be darned if I let you kill yourself doing so on my watch. So let me help you- help _us_."

McCoy didn't wait for an answer, and simply began walking-limping, rather-to where Spock was. He looked to Spock, who hesitantly nodded as the two of them set to work.

Before them was a pile of rubble that lied scattered directly beneath the hole they fell through. It appeared that Spock had already gone through the pile earlier, and found nothing to assist them. There was one crushed communicator that obviously no longer worked, and a phaser that was missing the power unit. They continued to search the rest of the cavern before settling down where they began for a break.

"Find anything?" McCoy asked as he carefully stretched his legs in front of him. They must have searched the cave for over an hour, and though he came up with nothing that could help them, his leg and side were glad to rest.

"I have located my tricorder-"

"Your tricorder? Why didn't you say so earlier?" McCoy exclaimed gleefully.

"I am unable to reach it." Spock stated simply.

"Reach it?"

"It is stuck on a type of root that is protruding from the cave's inner wall, near where we fell from."

McCoy slumped his shoulders and leaned his head back for a few moments, wondering if they'll ever get out of here.

"Did you find anything of use in your search?" Spock inquired.

"Well, I don't think it will help us escape, but it may help us otherwise." McCoy raised a fair-sized stone in his hand, so that Spock could see. The stone was sharp and jagged, almost reminiscent of tree bark if not for its grey coloring.

"I fail to see how that will assist us." Spock commented.

McCoy grinned slightly, pulling off his boots. He used the sharp edge of the stone to carefully cut and separate the outer sole from the rest of his boot. He repeated the technique with the other shoe, and slipped his boots back on. McCoy held up the soles and looked at Spock, the confused expression (that McCoy was still able to see, despite Spock's efforts) was priceless. He placed the two soles on either side of Spock's broken arm, and began using more cloth from his shirt to tie it down.

"A splint, doctor?"

"Yup. I figured it'd work better than the sharp debris around here. While you were likely solely trying to find out an escape route, I decided to look for other things as well." He finished tying the lower end of the splint, and began to work on the middle, and then upper end off the splint. "Now, I'm trusting you with my soul, Spock, so treat it with care."

Spock was silent.

"It's a joke, Spock. Since it's the sole of my shoe-ah, forget it. Never tell a joke to a Vulcan." McCoy rolled his eyes as he laid back against the cave wall.

"For Vulcans, the sharing of one's soul is an action that only the closest of persons perform."

McCoy paused. "Uh, Spock, you know that's not my actual soul, right? It's the _sole_ of my shoe."

"I am aware. I was merely implying that, should the situation arise, I would like to return the favor."

"Oh. Well, thanks, I guess."

Silence dragged on as McCoy looked up through the hole in the cavern and up at the sky, which was steadily darkening. "Looks like it'll be night soon."

"Indeed. The days on this planet are quite shorter than those on Earth or on Vulcan."

"Well, at least this planet doesn't get too cold at night. Though, I suppose it's actually quite cold for you, Spock."

"It is a manageable temperature." Spock commented as he joined the doctor in peering up at the sky through the cavern's small hole.

McCoy raised an eyebrow. "Manageable? For a half-Vulcan that means you're cold, but you can stick it out, if you have to, right?"

Spock neither affirmed nor denied the assumption.

"I swear, you're more trouble than Jim, sometimes." With a roll of his eyes, McCoy scooted closer to Spock so that they sat side-by-side.

Spock stiffened, but did not move away. "What are you doing, Doctor?"

"What's it's look like? I'm probably a human furnace to you, so it's better if we're closer, right?" McCoy could feel his face heating up, no doubt showing his blush. "After all, I'm getting too warm, so you'll cool me down as well. You know, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." McCoy paused. "I don't mean that literally. It's a figure of speech. Don’t scratch my back."

 "You are aware that Vulcans are touch telepaths."

"Yes, but I figured the layers of clothing would dull it some." He motioned to the their tattered uniforms. "Plus, I trust you, Spock." McCoy yawned. "I know you won't go snooping around my mind without my permission."

Spock blinked. "Indeed. I will not."

McCoy gave Spock a tired smile, which quickly faded. "Hey, Spock. I don't know if we're going to get out of here, so I wanted to say something to you." He took a deep breath before continuing. "It's about earlier, with the kamikaze's and whatnot. I said that because you and Jim are... well, honestly the closest thing we all have to family out here, away from home. And I don't think I can stand to lose either of you."

There was a pause.

"I do admit,” Spock began, carefully choosing his words, “that a person as stubborn, illogical, and emotional as you are, was not the first nor second person I expected to become acquainted with in the way that we currently are, and could further be in the future."

_Future? Did he just..._

McCoy cleared his throat and stared down at his hands. "Well, enough of this mush. it's getting dark, and we won't be able to see much anyways, so I suggest we get some rest for the time being. I know you definitely need it."

Spock nodded, watching as McCoy shut his eyes and began to drift off to sleep, Spock soon to follow.

"Good night, Spock." McCoy mumbled as he slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

The doctor's head slumped over, settling comfortably on Spock's shoulder. With a raised eyebrow, Spock looked down at the doctor, who was fast asleep. Spock momentarily entertained the idea of moving his own head to rest atop McCoy’s, but ultimately decided against it and rested it against the wall behind him, returning his gaze to what he could see of the night sky.

“Good night, Leonard.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! Let me know if y'all want a follow up chapter to this! I have other fic updates lined up before this, but if you guys want it sooner, then I can move stuff around. Enjoy!


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